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The idea of athletes going on strike, which has led to the cancellation of the World Series, has found resonance in the most improbable of places -- among teen-age female gymnasts of Romania.

Less than two months before the world team gymnastics championships in Germany, the favored Romanians have staged, if not exactly a work stoppage, then at least a disruptive slowdown in training, the effects of which have reverberated to the top levels of the Romanian Government.

Since last week, up to 10 Romanian stars, including a two-time Olympic champion, have refused to train indoors on the balance beam and uneven bars, and in the vault and floor exercise. Instead, they have limited themselves to jogging and other outdoor activity until they receive prize money promised by the Government for recent performances at the world individual championships and European championships, according to interviews with gymnastics officials, the national team coach and one of the country's top gymnasts.

Such a refusal to train would have been risky, almost unimaginable, under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. But with democratic reform in Romania has come the freedom of dissent. And in this case, anyway, the strike appears to have worked. Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu has intervened, and the money due the gymnasts, caught in a bureaucratic snag, will be paid in part today, with the remainder to follow in a month, gymnastics officials assured yesterday.

Octavian Belu, the national team coach, who yesterday told the Reuters news agency that his gymnasts felt "morally wounded" and "deceived" by the Romanian Ministry of Sport, said in an interview last night that he had received assurances that part of the money would be paid today.

"For the first time, when I received assurances, I believe it," Belu said through an interpreter in a telephone interview from Deva, a gymnastics training center in western Romania. "If the money is not paid, the problem will be rebuilt."

Lavinia Milosovici, 17, who won two gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, said the work slowdown had begun last Wednesday. Belu said it was Saturday. Both denied Stoica's claim that it was a one-day strike. The confusion is being monitored from the United States by the most famous Romanian gymnast of all, Nadia Comaneci, who defected in November 1989, a month before Ceausescu was overthrown, and now lives in Norman, Okla.

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Comaneci, who said she spoke with Romanian officials yesterday, said in a telephone interview that Belu may have orchestrated the strike because he is involved in a rivalry with officials of the junior national team in Bucharest. Such tension is normal, she said, considering that the junior athletes may be the ones actually competing in Atlanta in 1996. Others said Belu may be concerned about money owed to him.

"I think Belu is making a point," Comaneci said. "I can tell you the girls have no idea about this. It is their job to be gymnasts."

It is common for athletes to receive award money for performances at Olympic Games and world championships. For example, an American gymnast who wins a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta will be paid $15,000 by the United States Olympic Committee.

Romanian law enacted in July, Stoica said, was designed to increase the award money to Romanian athletes, who are heavily taxed for their winnings. The tax is approximately 65 percent, Romanian officials said. The new law languished because it lacked the signature from a Government official. Hence, the gymnasts weren't paid.

Now, after a short strike, the athletes have been assured the check is in the mail. Or in the case, of Lavinia Milosovici the money will be waiting at the airport. Milosovici is to be paid today for a bronze medal and a silver medal won at the world individual championships in Australia in April. She is to receive the money in the Bucharest airport when she leaves for a competition in Birmingham, England, officials said. In a month's time, officials said, she will be paid for gold, silver and bronze medals won at the European championships in May in Stockholm, where the Romanians won the team title.

Belu, the Romanian national coach, said that a gold medal at the world and is worth approximately $7,190 and a silver worth $5,390, with a bronze worth a lesser amount. An Olympic gold medal in 1996 would be worth $10,780, he said. Milosovici said in a telephone interview that she needed the money for her family, which is building a house. But she seemed to know little about the payments due her.

"I don't know when," she said through an interpreter. "I don't know how much."

Another Romanian athlete, 17-year-old Gina Gogean, is also to be paid for a gold medal won in Australia and a pair of gold medals won at the European championships. She was flying to Toronto for a competition yesterday. Belu, her coach, said that he sent Gogean and Milosovici to competitions despite the strike because commitments had been made.

A version of this article appears in print on September 28, 1994, on Page B00015 of the National edition with the headline: OLYMPICS; The Cost of Freedom: Romanian Gymnasts Stage Training Slowdown. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe